International Literacy Day 2020 : Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond

International Literacy Day 2020 provides an opportunity to reflect on “Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond”

Why is International Literacy Day celebrated on 8 September? 

The first-ever International Literacy Day was declared at the 14th session of UNESCO’s general conference in 1966 and since then it has been celebrated annually on 08 in an effort to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals and communities around the world.

The United Nations (UN) celebrates International Literacy Day on 08 September  to raise awareness and remind people of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights as UNESCO describes — “to remind the international community of the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies, and the need for intensified efforts towards more literate societies”.

What does the theme for International Literacy Day 2020 signify ?

According to UNESCO site “International Literacy Day 2020 focuses on ‘Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond,’ especially on the role of educators and changing pedagogies. The theme highlights literacy learning in a lifelong learning perspective, and therefore, mainly focuses on youth and adults. The recent Covid-19 crisis has been a stark reminder of the existing gap between policy discourse and reality: a gap that already existed in the pre-COVID-19 era and negatively affects the learning of youth and adults, who have no or low literacy skills, and therefore, tend to face multiple disadvantages. During COVID-19, in many countries, adult literacy programmes were absent in the initial education response plans, so most adult literacy programmes that did exist were suspended, with just a few courses continuing virtually, through TV and radio, or in open air spaces.  What is the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on youth and adult literacy educators and teaching and learning? What are the lessons learnt? How can we effectively position youth and adult literacy learning in global and national responses and in strategies for the recovery and resilience-building phase?

By exploring these questions, International Literacy Day 2020 provides an opportunity to reflect on and discuss how innovative and effective pedagogies and teaching methodologies can be used in youth and adult literacy programmes to face the pandemic and beyond. The Day will also give an opportunity to analyse the role of educators, as well as formulate effective policies, systems, governance and measures that can support educators and learning.”

Literacy related challenges around the world ( Source : UNESCO)

• 773 million adults and young people lack basic literacy skills;
• 617 million children and adolescents are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics;
• During the initial phase of the pandemic, schools were closed disrupting the education of 62.3 per cent of the world’s student population of 1.09 billion;
• Adult literacy and education were absent in initial education response plans, therefore many youth and adults with no or low literacy skills have had limited access to life-saving information.

Literacy as a driver for sustainable development

Literacy is now considered beyond its conventional concept as a set of reading, writing and counting skills, as UNESCO defines literacy as “means of identification, understanding, interpretation, creation, and communication in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich and fast-changing world.” It enables greater employement opportunities; improved child and family health and nutrition; reduction of poverty and expansion of life opportunities.

To promote literacy initiatives and lifelong learning worldwide as an integral part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development , UNESCO takes the following approaches with an emphasis on youth and adults.

• Building strong foundations through early childhood care and education
• Providing quality basic education for all children
• Scaling-up functional literacy levels for youth and adults who lack basic literacy skills
• Developing literate environments